More Vitamin D Please

Once upon a time our parents made us take "One A Day" vitamins every day to get what we didn't get from our foods. Bayer no longer makes that formula. The problem we later learned as an adult is you get too many of one vitamin and not enough of the others. Not enough C or zinc and too much A. As an adult we moved to individual vitamins so we got more of what we needed and less of what we didn't. As we changed so did "One A Day" their current Teen Advantage brand gives just enough of the missing Vitamin D to protect your child. Vitamin D isn't a vitamin at all - it's a hormone!

For our children it could be a matter of life and death. The new report which again is another study of a study found: "Low vitamin D levels were especially common in children who were older, female, African-American, Mexican-American, obese, drank milk less than once a week, or spent more than four hours a day watching TV, playing videogames, or using computers. The researchers also found that low levels of vitamin D deficiency were associated with higher parathyroid hormone levels, a marker of bone health, higher systolic blood pressure, and lower serum calcium and HDL (good) cholesterol levels, which are key risk factors for heart disease."


The report's solution is our suggestion - more One A Day for teens: "Vitamin D supplementation can help. In the study, children who took vitamin D supplements (400 IU/day) were less likely to be deficient in the vitamin. However, only four percent of the study population actually used supplements. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently updated its vitamin D guidelines, now recommends that infants, children, and teens should take 400 IU per day in supplement form."

"Supplements are especially important for those living in the country's northern regions where the sun may be too weak to maintain healthy vitamin D levels. Supplements are also critical for infants who are breast-fed, say the researchers. Breast milk contains relatively little vitamin D, while formula is fortified with the vitamin."